This year, Greek Life gets an entire week

At the beginning of this semester, Sacred Heart University’s Interfraternity Council and Panhellenic Council decided to convert its annual Greek Weekend into a full week of events. The events began on Saturday, March 24 and will continue through Sunday, April 1.

The participation in the Greek community is rapidly increasing. As a result, “Greek Weekend” has now become “Greek Week.”

“Due to the significant increase in numbers, we felt that our Greek Life was ready to participate in a full Greek Week,” said junior Javier Vidal, president of the Interfraternity Council. “Therefore, both councils researched the various Greek Weeks of other colleges in order to get ideas and begin drafting our own Greek Week.”

Participants kicked off the week with Relay for Life last Saturday. This event intended to have all organizations participate to help raise money for the American Cancer Society.

“It’s my first Greek Week ever, and I’m really excited to have a fun week with my sorority and win on Sunday at the Greek Olympics,” said Lauren Bruno, a member of Zeta Tau Alpha.

Last Sunday, Greek Life held a Mass for participants, followed by a single-elimination Family Feud tournament on Monday.

Yesterday was “Letter Day,” and all Greek Life members were encouraged to wear their letters throughout the day. Tomorrow morning, there will be a breakfast held for all members.

Unity is one of the major themes of Greek Week, as well as simply having a good time.

“Greek Week is about unifying all of the Greek organizations,” said Bridgett Carter, president of the Panhellenic Council. “It rewards everyone for all of the hard work that they have done throughout the school year.”

On Friday, Greek Life will host its annual skit night. Each organization will develop and perform their own skit, and will be judged on a list of criteria. At the end of the event, a winner is declared.

During Saturday’s barbecue event, each member is required to bring two canned items to contribute to a food drive for St. Charles Food Pantry.

Before the canned food is collected, each organization will compete in a sculpture contest. The organization will be given a box of props with a count of thirty minutes to create a sculpture.

Sunday’s event, Greek Olympics, will be the last event during Greek Week. Each organization will compete in various events including kickball, tug-o-war, a water balloon toss, relay races, and various minute-to-win-it games. Fraternities and sororities will compete separately, and two winners will be declared at the end of the event.

“At the end of the week, a Greek Week Fraternity and Sorority are declared based of the organizations who accumulated the greatest number of points,” said Vidal.

Sacred Heart’s Greek Life is geared toward challenging and inspiring the student body in the classroom and beyond.

“Our Greek community is home to nearly 450 students and includes six sororities and four fraternities,” states the university’s website. “Each of our Greek organizations is based on the principles of leadership, scholarship, service and sisterhood or brotherhood.”

For Carter, expanding Greek Weekend into a full week allows members more time for fun and camaraderie.

“It gives us more time to enjoy being a part of our organization, and allows us to reward all of the organizations for all of their hard work throughout the year with a fun week of activities,” she said. “Greek Week is all about friendly competition and bringing organizations together, as well as Greek Life as a whole.”